July 11, 2007
"If it looks like a phallic symbol, someone has a strange perception."
"You can find sex anywhere if you want to. . . . There's just some sick people out there." So says developer Sandor Shapery -- whose name is an anagram for Harder Ass Pony. He's wrong and he's right. He's wrong, because obviously his building is a phallic symbol. It's just silly to deny it. But he's right that no one ought to care. Nearly all tall buildings are phallic symbols. (I found a vulva symbol building that one time.) Deal with it people! The phalluses are everywhere. Get a grip!
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30 comments:
A nice cock is a lot prettier than that building.
That building would look pretty out of place at that location. The colors are wrong, for one thing.
The Emerald Plaza building, on the other hand, was a great addition to the skyline. The W is pretty generic.
It's a q-tip.
I suspect that most females in the cocktail lounge would secretly be comparing us to the force and majesty of that proud edifice!
It makes me wilt like a moth in a flame just thinking about peering down for a reassuring look while using any urinal in that building. Jokes about how cold the water is, or how deep is the water, in the urinal would ring hollow indeed there!
Get a grip on a phallus? Quel domage!
That building is a huge fucking cock. But, who cares? The problem is that it's designed uglyly.
"The phalluses are everywhere. Get a grip!"
Such a phrase to take out of context :0 (Yes, I have a dirty mind)
Infelicitous phrasing?
Intentional smart-assery?
Simple Freudian slip?
All and wonderful!
Ann, if you are interested in vulva-like architecture, here is a photo of one of the entries in the competition for the design of the Olympic Stadium in China for 2008.
"Shapery is no stranger to big, and at times controversial, developments downtown."
"Nearly all tall buildings are phallic symbols."
Then the question is "Does this building look so much MORE like a phallus than any other skyscraper, that it should be made an issue?"
The answer is no.
For a female building, consider the new Roman Catholic Cathedral in Oakland CA.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://sfgate.com/c/pictures/2005/05/22/ba_high_res_craig.jpg&imgrefurl=http://fumare.blogspot.com/2005_05_01_archive.html&h=438&w=498&sz=38&hl=en&start=10&tbnid=nt6q_u7wbRO0wM:&tbnh=114&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Doakland%2Bcatholic%2Bcathedral%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26rls%3DGGIC,GGIC:2007-05,GGIC:en
and scroll down to May 26.
If that's a flower then I'm a Robert Mapplethorpe photograph.
Okay, granted, all skyscrapers are phallic symbols.... But there are phallic symbols and then there are giant penises made out steel, glass, concrete and wood.
Plus this one is ribbed "for her pleasure."
and I nominate the Minneapolis Convention Center as feminine building. Or maybe two women. Can't find a good aerial view of it, but typing its name into google earth will give you the idea.
Should you assume I do these things on purpose? What do you think?
I guess I’m the only person on this thread who looks at Boing Boing regularly, but they did a posting just this week about some unmistakably penile-looking concrete traffic posts in Keizer, Oregon. That posting led to a blizzard of links to photos of buildings whose phallic nature was only noticed after they had been erected. So to speak.
That proposed Chinese Olympic Stadium could indeed be nicknamed the Vulvadome, and if built, could trigger many an Edifice Complex. (Oh, somebody was gonna say it -- and vet66 practically did.)
There was a Greenwich Village rock club I remember that would have done Judy Chicago proud, called The Big Kahuna. Its interiors were designed on a surf-shack motif, and above the entrance was a neon sign of what was supposed to be the outline of a surfboard -- but it looked more like the outline of something else. Good thing The Big Kahuna went out of business in fairly short order, because I think my friends were getting tired of me referring to it as The Big Vagina.
I live just south of the "F... ..u Downtown San Diego" project also known as the Horton Plaza Shopping Center. Offensive architecture is pretty much par for the course around here.
BTW, sometimes a penis is only a penis.
Yes, there are some sick people out there. That does not change the fact that this is an ugly building that just screams for the wrong kind of attention.
Should you assume I do these things on purpose.
I guess that depends on one's views about free will versus predestination. If one's views really are one's views.
I'm only going to say this once: all the double entendre around here is intentional.
Nearly all tall buildings are phallic symbols.
You know, I've always had a hard time with that. I mean, where are you coming from?
My old architect friend, Dick, designed a similar residential tower that got him in a lot of trouble. The condominiums started leaking. His wife said she didn't want her face splattered all over the newpapers.
With this project being in San Diego, a big Navy town, do you think it will fill up with seamen after it's erected?
The building needs a big fountain on top that periodic[k]ally erupts, shooting a nice geyser of water skyward.
IIRC, Ann has mentioned the vulvadome before.
I dont know about that building being phallic, but I do feel that the design of the first few floors appears quite dated.
I agree with several other commentors; it is no more "phallic" than any oblong structure, but it is aesthetically unpleasant in its own right.
What is it with people and their obsession with phallic symbols? "oh, baseball is such a phallic game, all those long smooth shafts being swung about". Give me a damn break.
It's like the Super Bowl show. "Oh, Prince's guitar! It's shaped like a phallus!" Yeah, 'coz you know when I think of a phallus I think of something three feet long with a vicious prong at the tip.
It looks more like a tampon applicator.
The "vulvadome" is referred to a the second link in this very post!
I saw the Boing Boing thing, but thought it was too dumb to blog about.
I worked in this one for a while.
No lie. To celebrate the opening, they gave out toy models of the building - six inches long.
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